


Let Me Count The Ways

by princessoftrees



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/M, Genderswap, I suck at tags, Tea Parties, girl!Harry, harry is liam's sister, harry is the cutest five year old on earth, louis just has ~feelings ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-09
Updated: 2014-01-09
Packaged: 2018-01-08 03:26:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1127796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessoftrees/pseuds/princessoftrees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Harry is Liam's sister, Louis is Liam's best friend, and things get a little complicated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let Me Count The Ways

Harry and Louis have basically been falling in love since they met, maybe even before that. Perhaps they were made for each other, Harry likes that thought. She likes to think that Louis is the one. She likes to think Louis has always loved her. She really does like him, she likes lying next to him, she wants to be around him; when you get down to it, can you say that about many people?

So maybe she has always loved Louis, and maybe she always will. There is always one person you love who becomes that definition. It usually happens retrospectively, but it happens eventually. This is the person who unknowingly sets the template for what you will always love about other people, even if some of these lovable qualities are self-destructive and unreasonable. The person who defines your understanding of love is not inherently different than anyone else; they’re often just the person you happen to meet the first time you really, really, want to love someone. But that person still wins. They win, and you lose. Because for the rest of your life, they will control how you feel about everyone else.

For Louis, it is Harry and for Harry it is Louis.

-

Louis first meets Harry when he is 5 and she is 3, he thinks she is cute in a you're-my-best-friends-sister-i-have-to-like-you and he is at that age where he doesn't really care all that much about girls, all that is on his mind was football and fifa and trying not to fail mental maths. She has curly hair and wears pink dresses a lot, and that's all he really notices about her, except that she eats a lot at meal times, like sometimes even more than Liam. He likes that. She's pretty nervous around most people but she always grins at Louis when he sees her, and she waves her chubby little hands like they'll fall off if she doesn't.

Liam hates how much Harry likes Louis, he doesn't particularly like his little sister, and Louis is his friend. He feels selfish and a little crazy sometimes. Harry and Liam are like complete opposites. Liam is quiet and shy whereas Harry, despite only being 1 year into talking, will babble on to anyone she's only just met. Liam's hair is straight and Harry's is this enormous mane of madness that circles her head. Liam's eyes are a cold brown and Harry's are the brightest green Louis has ever seen.

-

Primary school is a big thing for a 4-year-old Harry and Louis is there on her first day. She's wearing her uniform and looks pristine compared to Louis, who's uniform is scruffy and muddy and he feels like a bit of a failure really. Liam laughs at Harry when she cries but Louis takes her hand and walks onto the playground with her, carefully. He tells the mean boy in his year who comes up to them to leave them alone and the adoring look Harry gives him is worth the disapproving stare he gets from his teacher. He gets her to talk to a little blonde girl called Niall, and they walk off together babbling about their favourite barbie dolls.

He watches her walk away and feels weird, a bit protective actually. Which is weird because she's his best friend's sister, not his. Her curls bounce around her head as she walks off, arm in arm with Niall, who's bright blonde hair shines against Harry's chocolate covered mane. A little ginger boy trips up in front of Louis. He bends down and picks him up so he's standing again. The little boy gives him a shy smile before running off. Little kids are weird.

-

At 5, Harry has a tea party which she invites Louis, Liam, Zayn and Niall to. Niall couldn't make it and Liam and Zayn had laughed off the invitation so it's just Harry, Louis and a bunch of barbies and teddy bears. They drink 'tea' (orange juice) from her hello kitty mugs and eat a 'gourmet meal' (ham sandwiches) off her mismatched tweenie plates. They talk about school and Harry complains about how annoying Liam is, it's the first real conversation they've ever had.

They sit in Harry's room for at least an hour before Liam walks in and demands that Louis come and play football with him and Zayn, Harry looks a little upset but she lets him go. She goes to her window and watches Louis laughing with Liam and thinks how unfair it is that Liam got Louis first. She hopes Louis likes her, because she likes him a lot. Much more than Liam, much more than Zayn. Maybe even more than Niall. She sighs and goes back to the tea party, finishing Louis' sandwich as well as her own.

She has quite a lot of tea parties after that, sometimes Niall comes, sometimes her mum comes, sometimes Aiden comes, sometimes Zayn comes and sometimes she can convince Liam to come aswell. But Louis is always there, complimenting her on the amazing food and drink and making her teddies talk to her. Louis is always there.

-

An 8-year-old Louis teaches a 6-year-old Harry how to swim in Zayn's pool on valentine's day and it's freezing, but Harry had looked as if she would cry if he didn't teach her, so that's how they end up in the shallow end of the Malik's swimming pool, bodies shivering and teeth chattering. Harry is surprisingly easy to teach, and it only takes about 2 hours before she's bobbing about in the shallow end. She grins at him and kisses him on the cheek before running to tell her mum, and Louis runs a hand over his cheek and sinks under the water. It's the best valentine's day he's ever had.

-

Louis is 9 when Harry catches chicken pox. He doesn't realise it is contagious when he goes round to play at Liam's house and hugs Harry when he sees she is blubbering and covered in red spots. He doesn't realise it is contagious when he begins to scratch at random places on his body an hour later when he and Liam are playing on mario. He only realises it's contagious when Liam's mum brings them some snacks, and looks at him like he's some kind of leper.

She phones his mum, who bans him from coming home in case he infects his little sister. Liam has had chicken pox before so isn't allowed into the designated 'sick room'. Karen tucks Louis and Harry under her sparkly pink duvet cover and sticks Peter Pan on the tv. Louis hates Peter Pan but it's Harry's favourite so he doesn't say anything. And when Harry really has to scratch that spot on her shoulder, she resists because that's where Louis has fallen asleep.

-

Age 8, Harry gets her first 'boyfriend' and she brings him round to the house for a 'playdate' while Louis is there. He stares at the boy, a little ginger kid called Ed, for a bit, but he's actually pretty sweet and he clearly adores Harry. Louis vaguely remembers seeing him somewhere before, like maybe they were friends when they were really little or something. That doesn't make Louis any happier when they hold hands under the table.

When Harry and Ed 'break up', Louis gives her a big hug and says he's very sorry, but secretly he's glad, he never took Harry for a ginger-lover anyway. He feels bad for the boy, Ed. He'll never get anyone as good as Harry again.

-

When he's 11 and she's 9 he breaks his wrist while him, Liam and Zayn are playing football on the patio and she rides in the ambulance with him and Liam's mum, gripping his hand tightly and that's when he first realises she's crying. He asks her why she's crying and she says, "I don't want you to die, i like you.". Louis just chuckles, squeezes her hand and reassures her that he doesn't plan on dying just yet. She smiles at him and shows all her teeth and something inside Louis goes funny for a second, but then it disappears and he's back focusing on how much his arm hurts.

When they get to the hospital, Harry sits on the bed next to him while the doctor puts a cast on his wrist, and when the doctor asks what colour he'd like the cover to be, she shouts 'PINK' really loudly. All Louis can do is laugh and agree with her, and then he's stuck with a bright pink cast, which Harry takes up half of with her messy scrawled message. He waits until she's left to read it. He can't hide the grin on his face.

i'm glad you didn't die, coz you're my favourite, harry xx

-

On Louis' 12th birthday, a 10-year-old Harry gives him a pink fire truck toy and he pretends it wasn't his favourite present, but it sits in pride of place on the shelf above his bed, and when it's late at night he takes it down and puts it on his bedside table, and he doesn't know why. There's a card too, which he shoves in his sock draw, it says 'i know pink is your favourite colour, and fire trucks are your favourite still, right? harry xxx'. She's gone all out and done it in her best fancy pink gel pen, which is smudged a little at the edges but it's still perfect.

-

The day after she turns 13, Harry gets braces. Louis is there when her dad brings her back from the orthodontist, Liam begins making fun of her basically as soon as she walks through the door but Louis stays quiet. He's 15 and definitely interested in girls now, and Harry has obviously just started going through puberty because she's shot up to about 5"5 and she's a lot more.. developed now, even if Louis pretends not to notice.

He feels a bit wrong if he does notice, because she's kind of still a kid, but he can't ignore the way his fists clench when she starts talking about this absolutely so cute boy in her math class. While their having dinner, Harry's leg brushes his and he shivers, but passes it off as coldness when Liam throws him a cautious glance. Harry's complaining about how much her teeth hurt, but her mum says no, you can't have a painkiller, deal with it and she storms off to her room. After he's eaten his mac and cheese, he sneaks up to her bedroom and she opens the door as he's about to knock. 

He shoves a paracetamol into her hand quickly and rushes back down the stairs before he even hears her cry of thank you, Louis.

-

On her 14th birthday, he buys her a topshop giftcard, and the latest Justin Bieber cd, she smiles and thanks him, giving him a tight hug, turning to her next present, a whoopie cushion from Zayn, which she laughs at and she grins at Zayn, but she doesn't hug him. This makes Louis happier than it should. Him, Harry, Liam, Zayn, Niall and Harry's mum and dad all go to Nandos for tea and Harry orders a massive portion and eats it all. She has sticky chicken sauce all around her mouth, and doesn't even blush when Zayn points it out to her. This is when Louis realises he's in love with her.

It's a little weird, being in love with your best friends sister, especially when she's 14 and he's 16, but there's something enticing about the way Harry's hair curls around her face, they way her school tights always have a ladder in them and the way she throws her head back when she laughs. Her laugh is so beautiful, like the prettiest noise Louis has ever heard, and it's infectious. She laughs at Louis a lot, more than she does other people. His memories of her these days are mostly her laughing and rolling her eyes at Liam and dragging Niall up the stairs by her skinny little wrists to have a gossip about whatever bitch has been spreading rumours about them this week.

He tells no-one how he feels about her, it's too risky and he wishes he didn't love her sometimes but it's so hard when Harry's listening to John Mayer in her room at age 15, and asking Louis in secret to buy her alcohol for friends' party and wearing clothes that people stare at her in the street for and for not even caring. It's so hard when she brushes his leg under the table and holds his eye contact for just a second too long across a room and waves at him from the middle of her crowd at school. The way Harry flips her hair to the side so obviously makes Louis want to scream and also kiss her at the same time

He loves her when she calls him at 2am and asks her to pick her up and let her crash at his house and when he wakes up in the morning and his hand is holding hers tightly from her position on the floor. He loves her when they're sitting on the roof of her house after Liam has gone to bed and she admits to him 'sometimes i feel like other people hold me back' and when she rests her head on his shoulder. And he still loves her when she brings Ed home when she's 16 and tells them all that they're dating properly now.

Ed grins sheepishly and Louis plasters a smile on his face and tells himself calm the fuck down Louis, you're 18, she's your best friend's sister. Harry drags Ed in by the hand and plonks him down on the sofa. Ed looks pretty much the same as he had done when he was a kid, only older (obviously) and with a bit of stubble shadowing the edges of his face. Still ginger as ever, though. He's actually a nice guy and Louis thinks maybe if he wasn't completely in love with his girlfriend, maybe they could be friends.

-

Louis is 21 when Harry breaks up with Ed. Harry is 19. It's the longest relationship she's ever had and Louis knows she really likes Ed. He's been away at university studying drama and teaching, preparing to come back and teach at the local high school. He's seen Liam quite a bit over the past 3 years, as he was at a university quite nearby. But he hasn't seen Harry for about a year and a half. He was beginning to forget what she looked like, if that's possible.

He's had a couple of girlfriends since being away, but nothing serious really, the longest being with Eleanor, who he was was for 8 months. But even with her, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. He pretended he didn't know what but in his dreams he saw flashes of chocolate brown curls or long slender legs or the most beautiful green eyes he's ever seen.

When he comes home, his mum tells him that Liam called, saying he should go over there right away, they're having a party for Liam's birthday. He does. He gets a taxi across town to the Payne household and his hands have never shaken so much on this journey before, he's never been so nervous he felt sick. He pays the driver and practically runs up the path.

Harry answers the door, of course she does. She smiles at him, wide and open. All the memories of the two of them come flooding back, how could Louis forget? Throwing his arms around her, he hugs tightly, trying to make up for all the time since he last saw her. She pulls away and kisses him suddenly square on the mouth.  
It's perfect and beautiful and everything Louis has been dreaming of for the last 5 years or so.

When they pull back, he smiles at her.

She smiles back and says, "I missed you so much, i missed you everyday."

"I love you," he blurts out.

"I'm pretty sure I've loved you since i was 3"

They both laugh and she kisses him again.


End file.
